


Fibs and Fabled Endings

by Storm337



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: AU-kind of, Gen, Mild Cursing, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-18 16:44:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21930571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Storm337/pseuds/Storm337
Summary: Thomas asks Patton to go pick up his nephew, Nathan, and his niece, Sarah, from school. Deceit tags along.SSSS2k19 present for faithfulcat111. I hope you enjoy!!!Thank you bookwormscififan for the title~
Comments: 17
Kudos: 41
Collections: Sanders Sides Secret Santa 2019





	Fibs and Fabled Endings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [faithfulcat111](https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithfulcat111/gifts).



“Pat? Pat would you mind picking up Sarah and Nathan from school?” 

Patton squeals, hurling himself over the back of the couch to wrap his arms around Thomas’s shoulders in an uncomfortably awkward hug. 

“I’d love to!” he cries directly into Thomas’s ear.

Mrs. Sanders dangles the keys to her car in her hands, shaking them a few times to get Patton’s attention. Patton runs to her, bypassing the keys to wrap her in a much more comfortable hug. She returns it happily, humming softly. 

“Who wants to come with me?” 

Patton expects a chorus of ‘me’s from the others sides, but receives silence instead. He lets go of Thomas’s mother to turn back to them, raising an eyebrow. 

“Guys?” 

Logan looks over the back of the couch at Patton, holding Thomas’s laptop up. The blue screen of death glares ominously back at him. “I’m sorry Patton, but I must assist Thomas with these technical difficulties.” 

Roman mirrors Logan’s posture, raising his notepad up for Patton to see. He can’t read the scrawled words this far, but there’s a lot of them, and a lot crossed out too. “I too am terribly sorry, Padre, but this script won’t write itself!” 

Virgil, laid out across Logan, Thomas, and Roman’s laps, looks up from his phone with a sheepish expression. “.....you know I don’t do well with new people, Pat.” 

“It’s alright guys, I can go by my-” 

“Can I  _ not  _ come?” 

Deceit looks sheepish, unsure about his backwards question, as if expecting Patton to still shoot him down. It makes Patton’s heart ache and he puts on the biggest grin he can, just to see Deceit’s shoulders begin to fall a little.

Someday he’ll get Deceit to smile, but they’re not quite there yet. Soon though, soon.

“Of course you can kiddo!” 

“But what about-” Thomas begins, and then stops when he sees the shimmer pass over Deceit’s body. His scales disappear behind the glamor, masked by smooth seamless skin. The sharp slit of his left eye squishes, rounding out, and the color darkens to a more natural green. He snaps his fingers to change his outfit, swapping his disney villian stick for a turtleneck and black gloves. Predictably, the hat and the caplet stay. 

“Okay, nevermind, that works.” 

“Isn’t that a bit...much?”

Deceit flips Roman off, and Mrs Sanders tuts at him as he takes the keys from her and heads for the door, Patton hot on his heels.

“Drive safe you two!” she calls after them, Patton taking the driver's seat and Deceit cranking up the heat. He hunkers down in his seat as Patton backs out of the driveway, babbling about radio stations and types of music. 

And that is how they end up in the principal's office. 

Patton does his best to keep a smile on his face, but it’s strained and his jaw ticks with each grind he tries to suppress. One leg crosses over the other, foot bouncing in the air as he sits in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs in front of the principal's desk. 

Deceit is far less subtle, flat out glaring at the pompous man before him. He stands behind Patton, arms folded and hat pushed down to cast shadows over his face. It doesn’t seem to be as intimidating as he had hoped, probably due to the lack of shimmering snake eye. 

Too bad he can’t hiss to get his point across. 

“I’m sorry,” Patton grinds out, tilting his head slightly. “But that doesn’t sound like Nathan or Sarah.” 

“Mr. Sanders-” 

“Patton, please,” Patton switches legs, and at least stops the foot bouncing. He begins tapping the ends of his fingers together instead. Deceit shifts his weight to his other hip, just to remind the principal that he is still there and listening very intently to their exchange. 

“Patton. I understand that it may not sound like them, but there were several witnesses that can attest to the act.” 

“And who would that be?” Patton blinks innocently, but he folds his arms and Deceit knows shit is about to go down. 

He is so happy he came. 

“Mrs. Keller and Mr. Jones.” 

Deceit bites down on his tongue to keep from puffing his cheek out and hissing his disdain at the names. Patton squirms in his seat a bit, passing his anger off as simple readjusting. He glances back and up at Deceit, who simply inclines his head slightly. 

_ Those assholes, _ they communicate to each other, letting the loathing pass between them for a moment. They were, unfortunately, well known names in the household, even to a rare visitor like Thomas. 

Mrs. Clara Keller was Sarah’s 3rd grade History teacher, and Sarah hated her with a passion. She was rude, the 11 year old had said, sniffling in Thomas’ arms after having a breakdown over a homework assignment. She didn’t teach, simply telling the kids to read from the book and figure it out themselves, she gave too much homework, and Sarah had, at the time, no idea what to do for her assignment due in a few days because Keller had not passed out proper instructions. It had broken Deceit’s heart to see their little niece crying over something so inconsequential. 

Logan had swooped in to save the day, as he had later with Jones. 

Mr. Ivan Jones was Nathan’s 7th grade math teacher, and he had been alright at first. Nathan hadn’t minded him, up until Jones had given the class a test they had no hope of passing. The verbal lashing the children had received after for their poor grades had cemented Jones as an evil teacher in Nathan’s mind. It certainly didn’t help that, while good at math, Nathan had ADHD, and Jones was having none of his excess energy. 

All in all, their skepticism was shared for good reason, even though Thomas had never met either teacher before. Sarah’s crying and Nathan’s frustrated silence had been enough for Thomas and his Sides.

Patton turns back to the principal, the sweetness to his tone borderline condescending, “I’d like to hear their sides of the story, as well as Sarah’s and Nathan’s.”

“Of course, I’ll have Keller and Jones bring them up.” 

“Uncle Pat!” the children cry down the hallway, breaking away from their teachers’ sides to sprint towards the father figure, completely ignoring the cries of “no running in the hallways!” from behind them.

“Hi ya kiddos!” Patton greets, widening his stance to brace himself for impact. He spreads his arms wide and catches them as they leap at him, stumbling back just a bit from the force.

“You caught us!” Sarah sounds shocked, and even Nathan is giving Patton a strange look as Patton lowers him the few inches to the floor. 

“I know I’ve made some  _ misssnakes _ in the past-”

Sarah giggles, Nathan openly guffaws, and it takes all of Deceit’s self control to remain hidden. He allows himself the smallest of smiles.

The energy of the hallway dips suddenly, the clearing of a voice cutting through the happy reunion. Deceit peeks around the doorway just long enough to see Patton with one hand on each child’s shoulder, keeping them pressed against his legs.

Papa Bear Patton mode activated. 

“There is no running in the hallways,” a male voice says, slower than strictly necessary. 

“Aw, sorry about that!” Patton says, not at all sorry. “I haven’t seen these kiddos in forever, they just got excited. No harm done!” 

“Yes but-” 

“Oh- oh- I’ve got a surprise for you two!” 

“Really?”

“Mmhmm, a really off the  _ scales _ surprise. It’ll give you a good ol’  _ hissssy  _ fit!” 

Collective gasps cue Deceit to step out into the hallway behind Patton just as Patton moves to the side. The choreography is so on point Roman would have cried. 

“Uncle Dee!” 

Nathan and Sarah both aim for his left side, scrambling to reach him first. Sarah wins, latching onto his neck while Nathan faceplants into his stomach. Deceit wants to wrap all six of his arms around them, but manages with the two he’s allowed to have in public. 

“I’m  _ not  _ happy to see you two at all.” 

“We’re  _ not  _ happy to see you either,” Nathan mumbles into his shirt. 

Sarah only sniffles, and the big grin on Deceit’s face vanishes. He tries to pull her back enough to see her face, but she just shakes her head and burrows closer to his body. 

“Sarah? What’s wrong?” 

Another shake of the head. Deceit can feel her tears soaking into his turtleneck and spreading across his shoulder. Her body trembles in his arms, back hitching with her suppressed sobs. Deceit’s blood boils. 

Nathan backs away, wiping his own tears off of his face as he tries to be brave. Patton puts his hand on the boy’s shoulder and Nathan grabs hold of it desperately, as if it’s the only thing keeping him from melting down like his sister. Deceit swears he hears his heart break, and Patton looks close to crying himself. 

A throat clears again. 

“I don’t believe we’ve met, I’m-” 

“Mr. Jones,” Patton interrupts, taking the offered hand and giving a firm shake. Deceit catches the way Jones’ eye twitches with pain. “I’m Patton Sanders, and this is my brother-” 

Patton pauses, floundering, and Deceit wants to roll his eyes. 

“Damien.”

“I wasn’t aware that Sarah had more uncles,” Keller pipes in, expression bored, and Deceit wants to sick Remus on her. 

“Nine actually,” Patton draws the attention back to him. “And you must be Mrs. Keller.” 

“A  _ pleasure _ ,” Deceit purrs. He gets the tiniest giggles from Sarah and Nathan and it feels like he’s won a war. 

“Likewise. Can we move this along?” 

“Of course.” 

Deceit sits in one of the chairs with Sarah in his lap, still refusing to let go. Nathan takes the other with Patton hovering behind him, both hands on Nathan’s shoulders to ground him.

“So, what exactly happened?” 

Multiple voices raise at once to answer Patton’s question. 

“Between classes there was an incident-”    
“Nathan gave Jonathan a bloody nose-”   
“I didn’t mean to!”

“We watched him try to cover it up-” 

“Okay okay-” Patton waves his hands, silencing the room. “One at a time. Nathan?” 

“I think I should-” Keller begins, only to find Patton’s finger out towards her. His grin is all white shiny teeth and firm condensation. 

“I believe I asked Nathan to speak. Please wait your turn, Mrs. Keller.” 

Nathan squirms under the teacher’s vicious glare, her cheeks turning bright red in shame. He ducks his head and takes a deep breath. 

“I opened my locker and it hit Johnny.” 

“Did you mean to hit Johnny?” 

“No! Uncle Pat, you gotta believe me, it was an accident, I promise!” 

Patton’s gentle smile and ruffling of Nathan’s hair is reassurance enough, but he backs it up with words anyway, just to let the rest of the room know where he stands. 

“I believe you kiddo. Did you-” 

“Mr. Sanders, this is highly irregular,” Jones interrupts, pursing his lips. “Mrs. Keller and I clearly saw what happened. Nathan gave Jonathan a bloody nose and sent him to the nurse’s office. Children do not always tell the truth, you can’t just believe what he’s saying.” 

“And why not?” Patton fires back, smile still too wide and jaw tight. Deceit grins and thinks  _ shit meet fan _ . “Nathan doesn’t have a history of lying, he’s certainly never lied to me before! And, if I’m not mistaken, Johnny is your friend, right Nathan?” 

“That’s right, Uncle Pat.” 

“Did you and Johnny get into an argument?” 

“No, Uncle Pat.” 

“Well then I see no reason as to why Nathan would just give Johnny a bloody nose! So yes, I am inclined to believe that Nathan is telling the truth; he opened his locker and it accidentally hit Johnny.”

“But Mrs. Keller and I-” 

“Did you see the whole thing?” 

Both teachers fall silent and Deceit hides his smug grin in Sarah’s hair. Nathan straightens up, emboldened by Patton’s support. 

“They came around the corner at the end. I was apologizing to Johnny and I was gonna walk him to the nurse’s office but they started accusing me.” 

“Is Johnny doing okay now, Nathan?” 

“Yeah, he came back for the next period. He said he wasn’t mad.” 

“Did either of you actually talk to Johnny about how he felt about this whole mess?” 

More silence. Mrs. Keller looks to the side, face neutral. Mrs. Jones glares at the floor. Patton turns his attention to the principal, raising an eyebrow, and the man seems to relent.

“In such an instance, if Jonathan isn’t upset about the ordeal and it was, in fact, an accident, then Nathan isn’t in trouble.” 

“Well then that’s settled!” Patton ruffles Nathan’s hair again, a beaming grin on his face, and Nathan returns it in full happy force. “I think it’s time we got you kiddos home.” 

“Actually, there is one more thing.” Deceit wants to groan. Keller’s voice is already starting to grate on his nerves. “Sarah, do you want to tell them, or should I?” 

Sarah tightens her grip on Deceit, burrowing further into his neck. He rubs a hand up and down her back, biting his forked tongue to keep an angry hiss from escaping his mouth. Patton grinds his jaw, cocking his head to the side. Deceit swears his eye twitches a little. 

Keller sighs loudly, rolling her eyes with the attitude of a sassy teenager. There’s a satisfied edge to her voice that Deceit doesn’t like, “Sarah cheated on a test today.” 

Sarah trembles, sniffling loudly as her tears start up again. She shakes her head vehemently, nearly knocking temples with Deceit. Keller smiles, all pride and sick glee and Deceit really wishes they’d brought Remus. 

“Don’t try to deny it, I saw you look at Katie’s paper,” Keller begins, raising her voice, and Deceit feigns licking his lips to scent the air. “And you were talking to her during the test. Sharing answers, no doubt.” 

A sharp bitter taste spreads through Deceit’s mouth. 

“Liesss,” he hisses before he can stop himself, and all eyes in the room pin him to the chair. Even Sarah jerks in his grip, leaning back for the first time to look at him. Her eyes are puffy and red, glazed with fresh tears, the pattern of Deceit’s turtleneck pressed into her cheek. 

“What?” Keller sounds aghast, like she can’t believe he’d be bold enough to call her out. She fidgets, pulling at the hem of her blouse and tucking her hair back behind her ear. Patton shifts nervously, and Nathan looks distinctly uncomfortable. 

“You lied,” Deceit keeps his tone neutral and calm, focusing hard on not impulsively lying. The truth tastes strange. “I don’t believe Sarah cheated.” 

“Now listen here-” 

“No, you listen,” the calm turns icy, a hard edge dropping into Deceit’s voice. Sarah’s jaw drops, and Patton glances between him and Keller like it’s a tennis match. “You just jumped to conclusions with Nathan, so why should I believe that you’re not just doing the same thing here?” 

“I clearly saw-” 

“Right, just like you clearly saw Nathan-” 

“That’s different!” 

“It really isn’t.” 

The tension thickens, and Deceit swears Keller is going to start blowing steam out of her ears. Patton shifts, drawing the attention to him, and gives Sarah a sympathetic smile. 

“Sweetheart, can you tell us what happened?” 

Sarah cowers under Keller’s scrutiny, wiping fruitlessly at her eyes. She opens her mouth to speak, hiccups, and then starts crying again, hiding in Deceit’s shoulder. 

“See?” Keller points, throwing her other hand up. “She knows she’s guilty!” 

“Or you’re scaring her,” Deceit snaps back, and the principal finally steps in. 

“Mr. Jones, I don’t think your presence is strictly necessary anymore. Thank you for your time. Mrs. Keller, if you would mind stepping out of the room for a moment?” 

Jones flees just short of a run, and Keller stomps her way out, slamming the door closed behind her. Sarah flinches, and Deceit leans their temples together, giving her a small squeeze. The principal passes him some tissues, and Sarah lets Deceit begin to clean her up. It reminds him too much of the other times Sarah got frustrated with school and broke down. 

“I-I-I di-didn’t cheat,” Sarah stumbles her way through talking, hiccuping on her words. “K-ka-Katie just wa-wanted a pencil. Lolo and I ha-have been studying. Mrs-Mrs Keller started ye-yelling a-and I-” 

“Shhhh, it’s alright, little one,” Deceit tucks Sarah back against his body and holds her securely before getting to his feet. He collects her backpack from the floor and tosses it over his other shoulder, Patton automatically following his lead and collecting Nathan’s things. 

“I think we’re done here,” the principal nods dumbly at Deceit’s statement, “and I think you should talk to Mrs. Keller about her behavior. She’s an abysmal liar.” 

“How did you know?” 

Deceit raises an eyebrow. 

“It wasn’t obvious?” 

They leave the principal staring dumbly at the door, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 

Keller practically screeches as they walk past, shouting after them about Sarah getting away with cheating. Deceit turns his head back to her and flicks his forked tongue out, relishing the shocked and disgusted look on her face. He winks, the flash of his slitted eye sending the teacher scrambling into the principal's office. 

It’s worth the reprimanding Deceit knows he’ll be getting later. 

The four of them walk to the car, Deceit climbing into the back with Nathan and Sarah. Patton puts their bags into the passenger seat, fussing around with the stereo to give them more time to adjust. Sarah presses into Deceit’s left side and he lets her take his glove off so she can run her thumb over the scales on his fingers. Nathan curls into his right side and Deceit wraps his arm around Nathan, holding him close. 

Patton stalls just a bit longer to find some softer music and then backs the car out of the parking lot, meeting Deceit’s eyes in the rearview mirror. The eye contact doesn’t last long, but it’s enough to get their mutual points across. Deceit smirks, and Patton turns onto the main road. Nathan perks up. 

“Uncle Pat? This is the wrong way.” 

“Really? Oops!”

The children look at each other over Deceit’s lap, the snake flicking his tongue out lazily. 

“I  _ don’t  _ deserve something after dealing with that. I’m  _ not  _ thinking about a hot chocolate, which  _ isn’t  _ in this direction..” 

“Oooo, that’s a great idea, Dee! We should all get hot chocolates.” 

Sarah wipes her face off on her sleeves, squeezing Deceit’s hand, “I’d like that, Uncle Pat.” 

“Yeah,” Nathan chimes in, laying his head on the smug snake’s shoulder. “Thanks Uncle Pat, thanks Uncle Dee.” 

“You’re  _ not  _ welcome.” 

“Of course kiddos! What are uncles for?” 


End file.
